Global General

Five soldiers killed in Russia's Chechnya

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-02-06 01:44

Five Russian soldiers were killed in a clash with militants in Russia's turbulent North Caucasus republic of Chechnya, local police said Friday.

The clash occurred during a special operation late Thursday led by Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov in the republic's Urus-Martan district, southwest of the regional capital, Grozny.

"A group commander, a squad chief, a section commander and a rifleman were killed in a shootout. A sniper died as militants attempted to break through federal lines during the second clash," said a police officer.

According to Kadyrov, the special operation was primarily aimed at tracking down notorious militant Doku Umarov. Six militants were killed in the operation, he said. Last month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev established the country's eighth federal district in the North Caucasus, with Alexander Khloponin, the former governor of the Krasnoyarsk region, appointed as the deputy prime minister and his special envoy to the turbulent area.

The move reflected a shift of the Kremlin's tactics in tackling the economic backwardness, rampant militant violence and clan rivalry in the North Caucasus, which Medvedev regards as major security threats to Russia.